Today In Music – Ron Carter’s Birthday – Not!

So my usual routine in the morning consists of reviewing several this day in history and music sites. Then I think about the events, birthday, etc, that catch my eye and decide while exercising and taking my shower what to write about and how the music may tie into my musical library. Today two things caught my eye. The first was the birthday of Ron Carter the jazz bassist and the second was that on today’s date the first Grammys were awarded!  So as I thought about Ron Carte I thought about how he was the bass player on probably…

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Edward Meets More ProgRock – Italy’s Elvenking – ERA

So now that I’ve listened to many prog-rock, metal albums on MOG, several albums usually appear on the list of albums “just for me”. So there right next to folk and blues albums are these prog rock albums. Well yesterday, I listened to one of the albums ERA by Elvenking and I really liked it! I’ve written before that it amazes me that prog-rock/metal music is such a world-wide music phenomena and Elvenking reflects that geographical diversity. The band hails from  Sacile, which is located in the northeast corner of Italy. From their biography at Allmusic: Following in the pixie…

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Morning Music – Ben Sidran does Dylan Different!

Ok so last night I was looking at the Roots Music Report Jazz charts and there at number 2 was a new album from Ben Sidran. Now, I knew Ben Sidran way back in the early 70s when he was a member of the Steve Miller Band. From allmusic:   Sidran contributed on the keys and as songwriter on several Miller albums beginning with Brave New World in 1969, co-writing the classic “Space Cowboy” and three other tunes on that LP. He also authored “Steve Miller’s Midnight Tango” on Number 5 and collaborated with Miller on several other tunes through…

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February 17, 1982 – Thelonious Monk joins heaven’s jazz band.

Yesterday marked the 31st anniversary of the death of one of the greats of jazz, On that date Thelonious Monk died of a stroke, at the age of 64. I really didn’t get into Monk’s music until the last few years. I do have one album Monk Plays Duke on vinyl, but I have Brilliant Corners and Alone in San Francisco on the iPod! I had the album Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall on an mp3 player as a download from Rhapsody, now that’s one great album. (Note to self get that album on the iPod!)….

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The Unseen Strangers – Time Travel

So the other day I noticed an interesting band named, The Unseen Strangers at number 25 on the Roots Music Folk Chart. The album was Follow the Sound, I looked around at several music sites and I couldn’t find the album. What I did find was their 2010 release Time Travel, so I settled for that album. Well I shouldn’t say settled because the albums is terrific! First there’s the picking which is outstanding. Any band that kicks off an album with an instrumental, in this case, a track titled “Windmill Road” has my attention immediately! On the second track,…

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A Jazzy Thursday Afternoon – so let’s go Into the Night with Oscar and Milt!

So today I doing some work that required a bit of concentration, so the soundtrack was jazz oriented. Last night I had turned on Pandora and was listening to some jazz albums and one of the tracks was from the album Very Tall by Milt Jackson and Oscar Peterson, since the track that played last night was very good and I had never heard this album I thought that the album would be a good place to start my afternoon music. I was right! What a great album, but then I” wouldn’t expect anything  from these two great jazz masters!…

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Life’s Soundtrack – A jazzy day with the pianos of Chick Corea and Bill Evans!

So today was a jazzy kind of day. This afternoon I was doing some writing so I decided to listen to some jazz. I had download a Chick Corea and Gary Burton a while ago, so I decided to start the afternoon with another Chick Corea album. I chose his 2012 release Further Explorations. The album is a two disc tribute to Jazz legend Bill Evans.. On the album, Corea he leads original Evans alumni – bassist Eddie Gomez and the late drummer Paul Motian – on Further Explorations. The album was recorded on May 4-17, 2010, live at the Blue…

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Exploring Prog Rock – Anubis – A Tower of Silence

Anubis – Neo-Prog – Australia Yesterday I noted that at number  8 on the ProgArchives list of best albums over the last few years is A Tower Of Silence by the Australian neo-prog band Anubis. I gave it a quick listen and it sounded like something I would like, so I put it on the iPhone and gave it a more thorough listen this morning. I put it on as I was shopping in Target this morning and I really liked what I heard. We had been in the store for about 40 minutes or so we were ready to…

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Exploring ProgRock – The King of Number 33 – DeeExpus

So this evening I decided to check out some newer Prog Rock than early 70s Genesis and Gentle Giant. Now there’s nothing wrong with either of those bands, I just want to check out the new stuff, too. So I went back to the Prog Archives and looked at the list of Best ProgRock albums of 2010-11 and 12, because the album at number 7 King of Number 33 was released in 2012 and is the second release from DeeExpus. DeeExpus – Heavy Prog • United Kingdom DeeExpus hails from North East England. Andy Ditchfield formed the DeeExpus, when he…

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Exploring Prog-Rock and Into the Night with Big Big Train

So my son Andrew came over to me in the market at Target,the other night, when he finished his shift and asked if the track from Big Big Train he had put in my Father’s mix made it to my computer. I told him no, see not all the tracks got transferred to my computer from his thumb drive. He told me that he thought I would like them and that their new album English Electric was getting rave reviews and that it was really good. So last night and today, I have been listening to the album and he was…

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